A Visit to Cellefrouin, Part 1

Seeming at first glance to be” just another” lovely French historic and rural village, Cellefrouin, set in the steep sided Font river valley, seems to have more than its fair share of interesting features, some of which I will show you in this pictorial ramble and some in part 2, as there is too much for one post!

This is the local  map for walkers, a common feature of Charente villages and erected for the benefit of the many French and foreign visitors who enjoy rambling through the totally unspoilt scenery!

Using this information, we took this small untarred back road, parallel to the river, to see if we could find the watermill reputed to exist in a nearby hamlet. No luck with that, but then another delight appeared around a corner!

This charming but neglected little building next to the river is, I believe, the last remnant of the railway halt which served the village. That must have been a long time ago, as there is no indication of where the track used to run, save for the nearby river bridge (below), across which the railway must have passed.

The river Font, flowing westwards.

The village's old weighbridge. As you will have seen from earlier blogs, the  authorities like to preserve the old ways of life and these little features are generally well-kept, some even boasting flower baskets  in the summer!

The hotel and restaurant on the main road through the village. This forms quite a busy route for lorries, as the road takes non-motorway traffic, following the river's course, west to east across the area. On the chilly but dry November day we visited, all downstairs shutters were closed up, as you can see! Many such businesses shut down for holidays before Christmas and this could be the reason for the lack of activity.

Almost next door is the Mairie, presumably closed for lunch! A grand building for a relatively small village of 500 or so inhabitants.

Just across the road, we saw this lovely fountain and water trough. Below and to the left in the picture, a little stream runs  downhill in a deep channel, away to the main river.

With my liking for mysterious windows and doors, I just couldn't resist this example, set in a huge stone block for some forgotten reason!!

Iron gates in unmistakable French style, but these need some TLC!

and last but certainly not least in  Cellefrouin part 1, the War Memorial. 

Part two to follow next week with more places of interest in the village.

P.S. I also have a daily photo dairy, sometimes interesting sometimes very boring!  http://photodiarydps.blogspot.fr/ 

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 27/11/12

Marillac-le-Franc

Before I start, I apologise for the fact that this post is much longer than usual, but I did not want to omit anything, or split it into two posts.


A couple of weeks ago, we went to St Sornin for lunch. I have posted about the nearby Cave de St Sornin here.  Great little restaurant with a four course menu, wine included for €11 per head!!  As you can imagine, it is very popular, so you need to get there early.  I digress though, as this post is about Marillac-le-Franc,  through which we drove on the way home.  As we approached the outskirts, the first "person" we saw was this 'Gendarme', apparently watching us closely with his binoculars to see if we were speeding!

Further on, we encountered this elderly farrier on a road junction

We then turned a corner towards home, and there was a post lady thinking about her next post delivery!

We were so fascinated by these characters that we decided to return a few days later and have a good look around the beautiful, well kept village.  This time we arrived by a different route and our first point of interest was the village square and this lovely fountain, erected in 2003.

Presumably when the pump is switched on, the water runs out across the hand below, but while we were there, the water was just bubbling away merrily in the pond.

Behind the fountain is the X11th century church of Saint Didier

On leaving the Church and walking around, we saw a further number of interesting looking figures

Look closely and you can see a wire netting military figure guarding the gate; in his hands is a pikestaff.  You can  hopefully see his little circular nose sticking out below his hat!

Outside the village school, the hare and the tortoise are setting out for a race

 and a little further down the road, the hare is at top speed 

This chicken must be watching the race

 The wolf and a doggy Red Riding Hood going on a picnic perhaps

Outside the Mairie, a wolf hides around a corner

Meanwhile the tortoise has arrived at his destination, and the hare is not in sight!

Around another corner and this farmer is hard at work with his wire netting horse

Just on the edge of the town is the beautifully kept cemetery

 and of course, no village in France would be complete without its war memorial

Back at the immaculate town square once more

We discovered we had missed this swan, perched on a hedge

and the second weighbridge that we have seen in recent weeks, with this young man in charge

Finally leaving the village, this figure was there to see us on our way!!

What a fun and quirky village this is, with all the inhabitants obviously taking much pride in keeping the place immaculate, from the private gardens, to the streets and the central square.  The fountain, church, cemetery and war memorial are all so well cared for and a pleasure to see.  Well done to the citizens of Marillac - you have created a village to be proud of; we were very impressed.  

N.B.  Please read this link HERE; it concerns all of us who blog and it sets out VERY important copyright issues.   Thanks Denise for this information - who wants a $150,000 fine????!!!!

 

See also - My Life Before Charente updated  28 July 2012

Another walk Around St Adjutory

We went for a walk around this village at the end of February see HERE, and the leaders of our French leisure group decided to return last month for another country ramble! We left our cars in the village square, where I was taken by these beautiful roses and lavender plants close by, a display no doubt arranged by the local mayor's office.

We ambled for a short distance up the "main road" - this would have perhaps 20 vehicles per hour on it!! - before turning off onto a track into the nearby woodland.

Sadly, the blackberries were not ready to pick, but we know just where they are for a visit sometime soon!!

 The wild honeysuckle perfume was gorgeous.

The wild strawberries were ready, however, and once the walkers had moved onwards, there were not many left behind!! They taste more delicate than cultivated strawberries.

I loved the ferns that were everywhere. 

Our guides next brought us to the remains of an old water mill, disused since the 1850's we were told.

it was understandably in a pretty sad and overgrown state. 

We then came to a small stream, where there was a sweet little wooden bridge. 

 The water was crystal clear and running quite quickly.  We were led to believe that somewhere around this area there is a pool which remains warm all year round.  If you have ever tried to listen to a crowd of French people all talking at the same time, you may well understand why we were not too sure what the full story was about.  Nigel's French is fine when talking to one person at a sensible speed, but it has its limitations!

There were a lot of these plants near the water, and to us they looked like aspidistras.  I can just imagine them in beautiful pots in someone's fancy mansion!   We are not saying exactly where they are though, as they are so beautiful in their natural state.

 I was fascinated by this little cave under some tree roots; I am sure it has to be home for some tiny creature!!

 I have no idea what this  wild flower is, but I thought it was quite pretty.

These looked like a long-lasting variety of daisy; note the little hopper on the flower at about 2 o clock.

Finally, we made our way back to the  village square, where we noticed, for the first time, this lovely old weighbridge. We have seen a few of them in our travels around the villages, and their purpose seems to be for weighing grain and crops of various kinds. They are invariably quite well kept - note the flower troughs!

Looking through the window, it was possible to see the old scales inside.  Sorry about the reflection but ....

Hope that you enjoyed this stroll through the French countryside.

 About me Before the Charente updated 14 July 2012